Who are the top 100 people of permaculture?

Patrick Whitefield

Patrick Whitefield (born Patrick R. Vickers, 11 February 1949 – 27 February 2015) was a British permaculture teacher, designer, author, and consulting editor for Permaculture Magazine. He was regarded as one of the leading and pioneering permaculture authorities in Europe. (quote and image from wikipedia)

Masanobu Fukuoka

Masanobu Fukuoka (Japanese: 福岡 正信, Hepburn: Fukuoka Masanobu, 2 February 1913 – 16 August 2008) was a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his natural farming and re-vegetation of desertified lands. He was a proponent of no-till, herbicide and pesticide free cultivation methods from which he created a particular method of agriculture, commonly referred to as "natural farming" or "do-nothing farming". quote and image from wikipedia

Peter Bane

Peter Bane is the author of The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country, and a frequent contributor toPermaculture Design magazine (formerly Permaculture Activist). In 1994, he helped to found Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina where he built an off-grid home of natural materials. A solar energy pioneer, home remodeler, and microfarmer, Peter has provided consulting advice and design to landowners, municipalities, and universities for over 25 years. (image and quote from Community Solutions0

 Warren Brush

Warren Brush is a mentor, storyteller, a certified Permaculture designer and teacher, as well as a husband, a father and a grandfather. He has worked for over 25 years in inspiring people of all ages to discover, nurture and express their inherent gifts while living in a sustainable manner. He is co-founder and a tender of Quail Springs Permaculture, Regenerative Earth Enterprises, Sustainable Vocations, Wilderness Youth Project, Casitas Valley Farm and Creamery and his Permaculture design company, True Nature Design. (quote and image from his website, Quail Springs Permaculture)

90 people on the list!

Simon Fairlie for his work democratising access to land, promoting low impact development and the use of scythes.
"Simon Fairlie worked for 20 years variously as an agricultural labourer, vineworker, shepherd, fisherman, builder and stonemason before being ensnared by the computer in 1990. He was a co-editor of The Ecologist magazine for four years, before joining a community farm in 1994 where he managed the cows, pigs and a working horse for ten years. He now runs Chapter 7, an organization that provides planning advice to smallholders and other low income people in the countryside. He is also editor of The Land Magazine, and earns a living by selling scythes. He is the author of Low Impact Development: Planning and People in a Sustainable Countryside (Jon Carpenter, 1996), and Meat: A Benign Extravagance. " (Source: https://www.resilience.org/resilience-author/simon-fairlie/)

Charles Dowding for making no-dig more widely known outside of permaculture.
"Since 1982 Charles Dowding has been practising no dig in his market gardens, on areas ranging from a quarter to seven acres. He has written seven books on gardening organically and without digging, and gives regular talks and courses on the subject. His methods centre on using compost as a mulch, rather than unrotted organic matter which tends to accumulate slugs in the damp, British climate. He encourages gardeners to be adaptable in their approach, according to local soil, conditions and crops grown. His own speciality is salad leaves for sale to local outlets and the plants grow well in undisturbed soil." (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-dig_gardening)

Graham Burnett, especially for his writing.
"As well as cultivating his own garden and plots, he is actively involved with his local community in Westcliff on Sea, including setting up a number of community gardens and projects and has extensive experience of working with adults with learning disabilities in horticultural settings. Graham has held the Diploma in Permaculture Design since 2001, and was a member of the Council of Management of the Permaculture Association (Britain) from 2006 to 2011. He founded Spiralseed in 2001, and is a regular contributor to publications as diverse as Positive News, The Sunday Times, Permaculture Magazine, Permaculture Activist, New Leaves, The Raven, Growing Green, Funky Raw, The Vegan and The Idler. He has written The Vegan Book of Permaculture and Permaculture A Beginners Guide, and is currently writing ‘The Regenerative Allotment and Garden’ for Permanent Publications." (Source: https://www.permaculture.org.uk/user/graham-burnett/)

Chris Smaje for quantifying the benefits of agroforestry and challenging the view that the UK couldn't feed itself.
"Chris Smaje has coworked a small farm in Somerset, southwest England, for the last 17 years. Previously, he was a university-based social scientist, working in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey and the Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths College on aspects of social policy, social identities and the environment. Since switching focus to the practice and politics of agroecology, he's written for various publications, such as The Land , Dark Mountain , Permaculture magazine and Statistics Views, as well as academic journals such as Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems and the Journal of Consumer Culture . Smaje writes the blog Small Farm Future, is a featured author at www.resilience.org and a current director of the Ecological Land Co-op. Chris' latest book is: A Small Farm Future: Making the Case for a Society Built Around Local Economies, Self-Provisioning, Agricultural Diversity, and a Shared Earth." (Source: https://www.resilience.org/resilience-author/chris-smaje/)

J I Rodale deserves consideration  Founder of Organic Gardening mag and Prevention mag.

Rob Greenfield:  https://www.robgreenfield.org/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Greenfield

From wiki:

Rob Greenfield (born August 28, 1986) is an American adventurer,[1] environmental activist,[2] and entrepreneur.[3] He has "made it his life's purpose to inspire a healthy Earth, often with attention-grabbing tactics".[4]

Greenfield is also a writer and speaker, world traveler, ambassador to One Percent for the Planet,[5] and founder of The Greenfield Group.[6]
Contents

   1 Early life
   2 Adventurer
       2.1 2013: Off the grid across America
       2.2 2014: A year without showering
       2.3 2014: The food waste fiasco
       2.4 2016: Trash man
       2.5 2019: Food freedom: a year without buying food
       2.6 2020: Europe

Narsanna kopolla

I also think Sir Albert Howard should be considered ..... depending on how far back we want to reach ( he died in 1947).  He did research on composting in India and was a major influence on want turned into the organic gardening movement.

Narsanna koppula

I understand the questions that may be raised, but John and Jane Shuttleworth have to be mentioned. They are the founders of Mother Earth News.  

I believe that Morag Gamble should also be on the list.

Text below is from https://www.moraggamble.com/
See also https://ourpermaculturelife.com/

For the past 25 years, as a Global Permaculture Ambassador, Morag Gamble has led programs in 22 countries. Local food systems and permaculture education have seen her teach in communities and universities around the globe - most recently at Schumacher College in England - and leading a Food Politics course at Griffith University.

Morag lives amidst an award-winning permaculture education garden in a UN recognised permaculture village, and works with city farmers, school farmers, community gardeners, and educators. She sees the direct social and ecological impact of industrial farming on marginalised farming communities around the world - in Indonesia, India and most recently in East Africa.

Morag is the founder of the Permaculture Education Institute with students on 6 continents, and the Executive Director of the Ethos Foundation, a small permaculture charity which has just funded a women’s self help group in west Africa to run free permaculture education. She co-founded Northey Street City Farm and the Australian City Farm and Community Garden Network.

Her YouTube channel, Our Permaculture Life and Our Permaculture Life blog have both been accessed around 2 million times. She invites fascinating guests to her podcast, Sense-Making in a Changing World, each week. And she’s a regular contributor to PIP Magazine - the Australian Permaculture Magazine, and others.

I nominate Diego Footer. I'm surprised he isn't on there already with all the work he has done for Permaculture Voices etc.

https://www.permaculturevoices.com/

I'd nominate Greg Judy, Regenerative Rancher that educates about sustainable cattle raising.

Another name that at least deserves consideration is Eliot Wigginton.  He was the brains and brawn  behind the Foxfire books.

Hi team,

What about Liz Zorab? You can find her profile here: http://bytherfarm.com

Thanks

What will the name collectors do after 100 is reached?  Change it to top 200, or start knocking names off the 100 list?

Huw Richards first told me about permaculture! On his YouTube channel, I leanered several techniques, including interplanting and composting. https://youtu.be/swLkA1cHJ4Y

Reading his book, I learned about small-scale hugelculture and seed saving: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/617484/grow-food-for-free-by-huw-richards/

Taking his class, I learned what perennials grow in my area the best, and how to plan them into my garden each year for a satisfying, successful yield: https://abundanceacademy.online/p/more-food-less-effort

Plus, he's brittish, handsome, and passionate, so I give the young man (22 years old, I believe??) LOTS of credit!!

Jessi Bloom
Don’t know much of her bio, but she has a great book.

https://www.nwbloom.com/company/the-team/

I see David the Good was mentioned, but with no information.  I don't know all of his bio information, but here is what I do know:  He was born in 1979, married with nine children and one on the way (raising more permies -- yay!).  He was raised in Florida, started gardening when he was small, planted his first tree when he was fifteen (and it's still there at his parents' house).  He's gardened in both south and north Florida, Tennessee, and a Caribbean island, and is currently in southern Alabama starting a new garden on terribly poor soil.  I've known about permaculture for at least forty years, and have tried to practice it, but I think I've learned more about the practical application from David than anywhere else.  (And he's made me want to move farther south, LOL!)  He's also a bit of a goof-ball.

His youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC208478ECji1rdkDDbB0vHQ

Blog:  http://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/

And his books:  https://www.amazon.com/David-The-Good/e/B00TUQK5R8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?qid=1522502905&sr=8-2-ent&linkCode=sl2&tag=florisurvigar-20&linkId=ab7cee86ec94f1bfed7030bb865e4db5

Matt Powers

Gabe Brown. Large-scale polyculture no-till pasture-cropland-mosaic farmer who has probably done more than anyone to develop an industrial-scale permaculture, and get other farmers to take it up.

I can’t remember his name, but the guy who has the YouTube channel “Canadian permaculture legacy” has a huge food forest and does designs for people, as well as doing everything he can to spread the word about permaculture.

William Horvath from permacultureapprentice.com should be on here.  Very approachable and down to earth nature. He has great guides and resources online.

Gary Numan wrote:What will the name collectors do after 100 is reached?  Change it to top 200, or start knocking names off the 100 list?

We've actually got more than 100 right now. Which is good, because this really allows us to find out who the top 100 people actually are. After a few days, I'll probably switch the arrangement of names to be by their amount of votes, rather than alphabetical, so we can see who the top 100 of them are. Think of this as sort of an elimination round. Not everyone in this list will be in the top 100.

Paul's also going to give a high weight to the "People's Choice" (thumbs-up votes), and we'll make that person a spiffy image saying People's Choice for Top Permaculturalist (or something like that.) There will be a spiffy award for the highest apple votes, too, I'm thinking. We're still working on the names for the awards.

Paul is then going to give our list of 100 to the top people on the list (more on that here). They will then get to score each person on the list.  0 means "never heard of them" and 100 means "contributed the most to permaculture."   50 means "contributed half as much as the person with 100."  

I hope that helps!

Helena Norberg-Hodge:  One of the most inspiring documentaries I've ever seen was from her:  "Economics of Happiness"

https://www.localfutures.org/about/who-we-are/helena-norberg-hodge/

Justin Rhodes

Kris De Decker---creator of "Low Tech Magazine"

His research and magazines on Low Tech go beyond and deeper, thoroughly researched, and he lives what he learns.

Here's just one article:  https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2020/05/thermoelectric-stoves-ditch-the-solar-panels.html

Greg Peterson
Phoenix,AZ
urban farm.org

He’s encouraging people to grow more of their own food, regardless of their available space, and change our food system.  He has an annual fruit tree sale in Phoenix and holds periodic “seed-ups” to distribute open pollinated seeds at very low cost and encourage seed saving.
Very informative podcast — has interviewed many of the people on this list.

Keith St. Jean is his name.
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/jeaphl/i_am_keith_st_jean_or_canadian_permaculture/

Robert Hart https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hart_(horticulturist)

Joseph Lofthouse. Needs no introduction.

James Fry

https://groweverywhere.com/

For challenging the methods of aquaponics to get us to think more deeply about what we're using and how it works.

"James has been studying sustainability since his high school years when he interned with a solar energy company in hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. Having woken up to the fact that some things were seriously wrong in the world, he set out on a mission to help. Today he sees his role in life as someone who helps others to help themselves. He is driven by the simple belief that states; by teaching people how to provide for their own basic needs like food, housing, water, and health, we can make the world a better place."

John and Molly Chester have a nice documentary of their farm, Apricot Lane. The biggest little farm. I think they are still showing their operation.

Ed and Carolyn Robinson, back in 1943, published a large pamphlet/small book called the “Have More Plan”.  It took the concepts gained from rationing and ran with it.  The plan addresses raising ones own food, organic concepts, and independence ....all for the middle class.  No it wasn’t all organic, in fact there were many now questionable practices, but, given the time period, it was a huge step.

I would like to suggest Will Allen of Growing Power. He has done a lot for urban and sustainable farming in Milwaukee in particular.

I would like to nominate Nick Ferguson. Nick is a permaculture designer and consultant who specializes in plant and tree propagation. Nick has done consultations all over the USA and even so far as Ecuador, helping people design and set up, or just optimize their growing and animal systems. You can find his website at http://www.homegrownliberty.com.

I would like to nominate Nicole Sauce. Nicole is a homesteader and permaculturist who applies the permaculture principles to her homestead and daily life. She has a pod cast called Living Free in Tennessee that focuses on homesteading and interviews with people in the homesteading and permaculture world. Nicole also hosts a yearly spring workshop and various in person and online events focusing on living a better life.

Living Free in Tennessee Podcast
Nicole on Odysee